Jessica Ann Simpson was born on July 10, 1980, in Abilene, Texas. After developing her voice in the local Baptist church choir, she made an unsuccessful bid for The Mickey Mouse Club at the age of 12. Disappointed but undaunted, Simpson continued to sing in the Christian music circuit after being discovered by a small music label while performing at church camp.
Simpson meets 98 Degrees lead singer Nick Lachey at a Teen People party. "That night we fell in love," she says. At the end of the year, she releases her debut album, Sweet Kisses, which sells 3.5 million copies. Simpson becomes a cleaner alternative to Britney Spears's suggestive dance numbers by offering innocent contemporary songs like "I Wanna Love You Forever" and "Where You Are."
The head of a small Christian label discovered Simpson while she was in high school, singing on a church camp retreat. Jessica recorded an album over three years starting at the age of 14, but the company Proclaim Records dissipated and the album was never released. So the former cheerleader and homecoming queen at J.J. Pearce High School dropped out her senior year.
